A Friend In Need
by Alidiabin
Summary: At NCIS medical examiners and special agents have always been friends. Post 8x12. Mike visits Magnus. Ducky and Gibbs talk and Jimmy and Tony watch a game.


**Title: **A Friend In Need**  
>Fandom: <strong>NCIS**  
>Author: <strong>Alidiabin**  
>Words: <strong>1,304**  
>Disclaimer: <strong>I own nothing**  
>Warnings Spoilers: ** season 8. Focusing on the episode 8x12. **  
>ParingsCharacters:** Walter Magnus, Mike Franks, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Ducky Mallard, Tony DiNozzo and Jimmy Palmer.  
><strong>Summary: <strong>Medical examiners and Special Agents have always been friends. Tag to 8x12.

_**A Friend in Need**_

Walter Magnus stood in the dining room of his daughter Julie's dining room, the winter sun streamed through the window on the quiet Saturday afternoon. Except he was the only one who was quiet, his grandsons Ethan and Dylan aged four and eight, were making a racket.

Walter sat down on his chair, the photograph album Ducky had given him after he left NCIS. He stopped on a photo of him and Mike Franks. He had always enjoyed working with Mike, though they had many differences of opinions and Mike was impatient when it came to getting autopsy results back. He had enjoyed his work. He and Mike had developed a friendship. Mike had eventually become a frequent dinner guest at the Magnus household.

Julie Magnus put her book down on the bedside table in her bedroom; she could not get into the silly romance novel, not with everything going on. Her kids, her father and her impending divorse.

The chime of the doorbell broke both Julie and Walter Magnus from their musings.

Mike Franks stood outside the door of a quaint little house in North Carolina. Amira had declared she needed to pee three times during the drive, and Leyla was wondering why they had made the little trip.

Julie opened the door, for a brief moment she had considered the fact it could be her soon to be ex-husband Tommy, but instead turned out to be an old man who looked kind of familiar, a Middle Eastern woman and a little girl aged about four.

"Well didn't you grow up Jules?" Mike Franks said taking Julie's hands.

"Agent Franks," Julie cried, realising who it was, her Dads old friend. "Have you come to see Dad?"

"Yeah," he said, "Ducky and Probie called me."

"And you brought some people," Julie said looking at the woman with foreign features and the girl that was obviously her daughter with confusion and curiosity.

"Yeah, this is Leyla my daughter-in-law and Amira my granddaughter," Mike said.

"Mom," Julie's elder son Dylan called from the lounge, "who's at the door?"

"Some friends of Paw-Paw," Julie replied, as soon as she did her two sons came out of the lounge. The younger child walked up to Amira. "Dad's out the back."

_**XXX**_

Mike stood in the doorway of Walter's dining room. He let out a slight cough. He had been coughing for weeks now, a persistent cough that he had blamed on Amira's germs. When he had started coughing blood, Leyla had dragged him to the doctor. He still had not told her about the terminal lung cancer, he knew it would destroy her.

"Mike," Walter said startled by the intrusion.

"Walter," he said, sitting down next to him uninvited. "This brings back memories."

"That kid that's playing with my grandchildren not yours is she," Walter asked.

"She's my granddaughter Amira," Mike said.

"The one having tea or the one playing hide and seek," Magnus asked.

"The kid, Leyla's my daughter in law." Franks replied.

"We worked together for a decade, and you never told me you had a kid," Magnus asked.

"Didn't find out about him until I retired." Mike said. "Remember Maggie," Magnus nodded, he remembered Maggie she was a sweet girl who had made good with the cards she had been dealt in life. He remembered that Mike had been truly smitten by her even asking Walter about things like marriage and children. Maggie had left after one fight not long afterwards. "Liam came and found me before he deployed. He came back and was killed by people wanting money. He was trying to smuggle Leyla and Amira into America."

"I'm sorry," Magnus said. Mike nodded.

Suddenly, Mike felt a change in the room. Walter looked around the room. He looked scared. His eyes became glassy. He seemed distant.

"Walter," he said.

"Mike, why are you here? Do we have a case? I should call Lizzie and tell her not to wait up." Mike stopped. Time had fallen from the grasp of Magnus hands. Mike's heart broke for his dear friend.

"No we don't," Mike said, as Leyla and Amira appeared in the doorway, Amira had a smile on her face but Leyla seemed desperate to leave. Julie came in behind them with a pill for Walter. Mike walked out.

"I need to talk to you," Mike said as they walked out.

"About your doctor's appointment," Leyla asked. Mike nodded.

**XXX**

Ducky walked down the stairs of Gibbs basement. The stairs creaked. Ducky reached the bottom of the stairs. He had come to Gibbs with a heavy heart. He had seen what had happened to Walter Magnus. It had scared him.

"Duck," Jethro said as she stopped sanding his wood.

"Jethro," Ducky replied as he sat down on one of the stools. Gibbs poured him a drink into an empty jar, Ducky did not take it.

"You wanna talk about Doctor Magnus," Gibbs began.

"If ever I get like that Jethro," Ducky paused knowing what he wanted to say but unsure of how to word it, "I would not want to continue like that for long."

"Duck," Gibbs said, not liking what his friend was thinking. _Too many people were dying_, he thought. Mike and Magnus were getting close to the pearly gates, Gibbs did not want to think of Ducky getting close, surely he had another base left before he hit a home run.

"Jethro," Ducky replied, "I just do not want to waste away." The thought of spending his days slowly losing a grip on reality, scared him, it scared him more than death itself. "Just remember what I told you."

"I will," Gibbs said, even though he really did not need another friend talking about death.

"What are you building in here?" Ducky asked, sensing his friends need to change the conversation.

"Something for Amira," Gibbs lied. Ducky smiled as he headed back up the stairs.

_**XXX**_

Jimmy Palmer sat on the oversized couch that took up most of Tony's lounge room. There was a six pack of beers and a box of pizza between them. There was also a game on. Though neither man seemed interested in the game Jimmy did not follow the sport plus Tony was distracted.

"Is it bad that I miss Breena?" Jimmy asked. Brenna was visiting her father and step mother after her father had minor surgery. Jimmy had found himself missing Breena. He had never gotten so far with a girl before. "Abby thinks it's cute." Abby might have thought it cute, but she would have found it weird if she was the one being missed, despite her openness and desire for affection, she was a commitmentphobe.

"As long as you don't get all _Obsessed_ you should be fine," Tony said sneaking in a movie reference to some movie that was on late at night, "she is your girlfriend after all." _Not just your partner, who went away for a long weekend with a man named Ray,_ Tony thought, _who you missed terribly. _

"I'm thinking of asking her to move in with me," Palmer said as she took another slice of slightly cold pizza. "My place is closer to work, and her neighbours always complain about the noise she makes during sex."

"Where's she gonna go, your apartment isn't that big?" Tony asked rather spitefully.

"We could get a house, and then the neighbours wouldn't complain about our sex lives." Palmer added. "I guess it would be silly to ask you about all of this, you're not really the commitment type."

"I am," Tony said, "I'm just waiting for the right girl." Palmer stopped talking and replied to a text, judging by his eagerness to reply it was probably from Breena.

Tony relaxed as the game continued. He thought about texting Ziva but decided against it.

**A/N**: I couldn't remember Magnus daughters name, so if it's wrong I apologize. Also reviews save lives.


End file.
